Screen Refresh Rate Enquiry

[Raging_Bananas]

Does the display run at 120 hz if I am watching a 60 fps video on YouTube?

[Beanz_1]

No, it doesn't

[Raging_Bananas]

You're fired!

[Star_girl]

Yes, your 120Hz display will still be refreshing at 120Hz when watching a 60fps video on YouTube. 

Explanation:

Refresh Rate (Hz): This refers to how many times your display updates the image on the screen per second. A 120Hz display refreshes its image 120 times every second.Frame Rate (FPS): This refers to the number of individual frames (images) that the video source (YouTube in this case) is sending to your display per second. A 60fps video sends 60 unique frames per second. 

How they interact:

When you're watching a 60fps video on a 120Hz display, the display's higher refresh rate allows it to refresh more frequently than the video is providing new frames. Since 120Hz is exactly double 60fps, the display will essentially show each frame of the 60fps video twice for every full refresh cycle. 

While the display is technically running at 120Hz, you won't perceive additional smoothness beyond what 60fps offers, because there are no new frames of content for the display to show in those extra refresh cycles. The benefit of 120Hz displays is primarily seen when the content itself also provides a higher frame rate (e.g., 120fps gaming), or in specific scenarios like smoother handling of 24fps content (common in movies) where 120 is a multiple of 24, allowing for even frame presentation. 

AI responses may include mistakes.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Monitors/comments/miky27/watching_youtube_on_120hz/ 

[arianwen27]

It depends which phone you have. Some samsung phones stick to either 120hz or 60hz. Some will adjust to save battery.

Settings, display, motion smoothness. If 120hz is called "adaptive" and "up to 120hz" then it will use 60hz when watching YouTube. My s25 ultra says that. Assuming the A series might say something different.

Modern S series phones will match the fps of whatever video is playing. A series I'm not sure of, so have a look for those key words I mentioned

[johnz237]

Well, yes, but also no. Simple answer: if the video is 60fps, you're going to see it as 60fps, even if your screen is 120Hz.

The video won't become 120Hz and still be displayed at 60fps. Most devices will auto go to 60Hz to match; otherwise, you're just wasting battery—at most, you're just having 2 hz per frame, which does absolutely nothing.

*Hz is how many frames the screen can display, and fps is the amount of frames per second being displayed.

[Raging_Bananas]

Thanks, SkyNet.